The Hunted
by Gabiby
Summary: Upon returning to Konoha, Ame, Saiyuri and Byakurai are given a mission to team up with Naruto and the others to find the jinchuriki Fuu, aiming to bring her to the safety of the village before the Akasuki hunt her down.


Well, this is my first shot at a Naruto fanfic. I have used my OC, Saiyuri, and the OCs of two of my friends, but there are no real major changes to the storyline. Hope you like it!

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><p>Ch. 1 – Running this<p>

I had my swagger on as I strode down the street, humming a song under my breath, and twirling a kunai around my index finger to accentuate my badassery. It had only been three days here at the Village of the leaf, yet I felt like I had lived here nearly all my life. It very nearly felt like home. Only if I had my brothers and my dad here, and life was as it used to be. But I had my best friends and teammates with me, all day every day, and that was pretty damn awesome, I must say.

As I strolled down the streets, passing the ramen stand, I heard someone calling my name. "Hey, Saiyuri! You haven't come for your usual bowl of ramen today... what's going on?"

It was the owner of the ramen stand, and as I turned around to face him he was waving at me for my attention. Already, after three days, I had become well-acquainted with many of the villagers, despite the fact that my team had to fight most of them. As for my other teammates, well... let's just say it's going to take a little longer for them to get on a friendly basis with the villagers here.  
>My team was made up of my two best friends, Ame and Byakurai – neither who were exactly party animals or socialites. "Oh, nothing~" I called back in my loud, brassy voice. The ramen stand guy had quickly picked up on my heavy, almost life-threatening diet; courteousy of living with a family comprised entirely of guys. But today, Ame had made us all a big breakfast, and surprisingly, I still wasn't hungry. "Maybe later, at dinner time! Big breakfast today, y'know?" He laughed heartily in response. "All right, Saiyuri, come back soon, alright? We miss your business already!" Waving again, he ducked his head back into the stand to serve a customer. I couldn't help smirking. It was little things like this which often made a day special. … Did I really just say that? Jeez. Sorry, I don't usually come out with corny, soppy things like that. That kind of thing's reserved for people with no balls; not for the likes of me, or the kind of people I hung around with.<p>

For no apparent reason I found myself at the Village entrance, looking out onto the path and the dense trees growing along the sides of it. For our first couple of days here, this is how we had been spending our days – exploring and strutting around town as if we owned the place. Well, I don't think the latter quite applied to my best friends, but we were certainly having fun exploring. Also, we had all managed to pass the Chunin exams, so I think all of us were basking in our new-found status, glory and the exponential growth in our badass levels. Mine already was quite freaking high, if I do say so myself, but becoming a chunin... well, that was pretty bitching. There was much celebrating back home in our old village; when we went back to deliver the news and fill out the paperwok before we transferred here. Basically, we were one level away from being completely top-shit. However, it was probably going to take a couple more years to achieve that top level of ninja status – the jounin. In the meantime, our badassery levels will experience a slower, steadier growth.

It could have been just a trick of the eye, like those mirage things you get on the ground when the weather has been warm and dry, but I thought I saw somebody approaching the village on the road. Just a lone figure; a tall, dark smudge on the horison, amongst the mirage of water. I stood and watched curiously for a moment, to try and separate reality from illusion. My suspicions proved correct as it grew slightly larger in size. Someobody was approaching the Village – but if it was friend or foe, I couldn't tell from this distance away. So I sat myself down in front of the entrance and observed. Aw, yeah. Stakeouts for the win.

As the figure drew closer, it became apparent that they were wearing some form of bright orange jumpsuit. His spiky blonde hair reflected the harsh sunlight. He walked at a kind of melancholy pace towards the village, appearing to be in no kind of rush. He didn't look like much of an evil dude, but hey, appearances can be decieving. But really? An _orange jumpsuit? _What was he, like, five? But the mocking insults building in my mind soon evaporated when he drew close enough for me to make out some facial features, and damn, I could tell that the girls would be crawling all over him like flies. The blondie had the beautiful blue eyes to match, and even hidden under that horrendous jumpsuit, you could tell that he had a great body. A black-banded ninja headband glinted on his forehead. But probably the most puzzling thing of all was that he had the signature swirly-leaf thing design that was the symbol of this village. I had never seen the guy before in my life, and even though I had been here for a short space of time, hell, I already ran this shit. So naturally, I felt myself raising an eyebrow when he saw me sitting at the entrance and looked at me as if _I _was the outsider.  
>"Right you," I announced in my loudest, boldest voice, and drew myself up to my full glorious 153 centremetres of height. I looked him square in the eye, drilling into his soul. But this one was made of stronger stuff than some of the villagers here. He met my gaze equally, looking down at me in indignant surprise. Cobalt blue clashed with my amber orbs. "Who the hell are you and why the hell are you here?" I demanded, folding my arms so that he knew I meant business.<br>A dark shadow suddenly descended from the trees, but this didn't bother me. Ame was right on cue, every single time. She landed softly in a crouch so that her legs absorbed the impact, then straightened up briskly, regarding him with an impassive stare. "Yeah, why the hell are you here?" She echoed my enquiries, then stared pointedly at him, expecting an answer. The boy began to look more irritated than anything now, but did I care? No.  
>"I live here! This is my village!" He retorted as if he couldn't believe this was happening to him, then jabbed a finger at his headband furiously. He had a surprisingly rough voice for a boy his age.<p>

"See? I've just been away for a while! And isn't that what I should be asking you two? Why are you here?"

"Because we live here?" I countered, raising my eyebrows at him in a gesture of challenge. His eyes narrowed. Oh yes, this one would be a handful.  
>"Well, I haven't seen you around before. You definitely weren't here before I left." The boy lifted a hand; ran it through his hair. We were making him feel uneasy. I shrugged in response.<p>

"Either way, you got here too late!" I stated victoriously, much to the boy's distaste, then turned back to the town, raising my arms like a god beholding the glory of their creation. "I RUN THIS SHIT!"

"Hey! This is MY town! _I_ run this shit!" I heard him retort angrily from behind me, and as I turned around to face him and opened my mouth to say something, Ame rolled her eyes and said dryly, "oh, please, we all know that _I _run this shit."  
>The boy looked horrified, switching his attention to Ame, then pointed at her accusingly. "You do <em>not! <em>I don't even _know_ you! Who the hell do you think you are, anyway, and you can't just show up here and tell people what to do! I'm gonna be Hokage one day and kick your asses!" I was astonished at this boy. He didn't take shit from anybody, and he didn't just stop there. He kept on arguing with us, steadily keeping up the onslaught of abuse and outrage, but Ame had stopped caring a long time ago and now occupied herself with poking my cheeks. "Yuri, your cheeks are so squishy~" She purred. I felt my soul dying within me.  
>"Really, Ame? Must you? I have a reputation to maintain here!" I protested loudly, slapping away her prodding hands, and quickly surveyed the area to ensure that nobody else had witnessed my badassery levels take a nose dive and crash and burn in one of the deepest pits in the earth. But I had forgotten what was right in front of me. Somebody snorted, then dissolved into laughter. The boy was laughing at me. He would tell everyone, I knew it.<p>

"Nooo!" I howled, slipping out of Ame's clutches, and snatched a handful of the boy's jacket in my hand, wrenching his face close to mine so that he could not possibly mishear anything. "Not a word to anyone, blondie. Or your ass is mine." He was still grinning broadly, but he nodded and rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay, you crazy lady. I won't tell anyone." His hand had already detangled my fingers from the front of his jacket before I could react, and pushed me away as gently as a guy could to a girl. I frowned in annoyance at not being treated as an equal.  
>Making amends, I cleared my throat before I started speaking again. "Anyway, now that we've settled who runs this shit – it's you, Ame..." I said to her in an undertone, but loud enough for the boy to hear it, and watched his expression go horrified again. But before he could start his rage rant, I skipped to formalities. "I'm Saiyuri Amaya, the Perpetually Badass Mofo. And this," I said with a flourish, "Is Ame Karai, the Most Awesome Person to Ever Grace The Surface of the Earth. It's an honour for you to even be exchanging words with us, so I'd be pretty damned pleased about it if I were you." Whilst Ame smirked beside me I stuck out my hand, grinning at the boy, and although he took it somewhat hesitantly he had a nice, firm handshake. He then turned expectantly to Ame for a handshake, but she had folded her arms and was giving him a withering stare that could cause trees to keel over and die. He narrowed his eyes at her and pretty soon they were sizing each other up, trying to stare each other down. "Hey, blondie! Focus!" I scolded indignantly, poking him hard on his upper arm before Ame got sick of him and tried to end his life. "What's your name? So that we don't have to give you embarrassing nicknames for the rest of your life." Not that knowing his name would stop us anyway.<br>He stood up straight and tall. "My name?" He repeated as if it would be the greatest thing we would ever hear. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and one day, I'm gonna be Hokage!" Naruto the blondie grinned proudly at the both of us. "Believe it!"

"No." Ame muttered under her breath. Though I was a pro at proving people wrong and keeping an argument going for hours, she was the one who came up with all the hilarious one-liners that shut people up instantly.  
>"Mkay, yeah... sure..." I murmured doubtfully, glancing him up and down, from his spiky blonde hair to his shitey three-quarter bright orange pants. No Hokage was going to wear that if I could help it. "Well, it's, uh... <em>nice <em>to meet you, Naruto Blondie Uzumaki."  
>"Welcome back to 'This Shit', which I run," said Ame in a very informative tone, gesturing to the village behind us.<p>

"WHICH -" I added when I saw him open his mouth to protest, "You forfeited in your absence. Where abouts did you go anyway, for so long? We were here at the last Chunin exams and didn't see you around."  
>Naruto immediately brightened when I asked about his absence. "Yeah, I was away from here for three years, training." He replied pompously, then his eyes widened with excitement. "I can't wait to see how everyone is! It's been so long since I've been here!"<br>I laughed lightly at his eagerness. The boy was basically like a child in a candy store. It was adorable. "All right then, you can run along and visit your friends again~" I said, putting my arm around his shoulder and walking him into the town as if we were good friends. "Actually," I added, a sudden idea occurring to me. "How about you take us around with you and introduce us to your friends? Like, I know we've met most of them, but I'm sure there's a few we've missed..."  
>"Yeah, sure!" He replied evenly, grining widely. "I have to say hello to all of them anyway!"<br>"Sweet."  
>Before we could barely move a couple of metres, a small, unremarkable brown-haired boy whom I had never seen before had dashed around the corner, blue scarf flapping wildly in the breeze. Like Naruto and myself, he wore his headband in its rightful position on the forehead."NARUTO!" He yelled joyfully. "You're back!" In his haste, the boy accidently trod on his scarf and ended up faceplanting on the ground.<br>"Oh, fuck me..." I heard Ame mutter darkly from behind as the boy groaned and dragged himself up off the floor. "I'm getting stupider, I can feel it. Too much stupid rubbing off these idiots."  
>"Hey, Naruto? Is that really you?" I heard another voice call, only this time it was a girl's, and it was familiar. Sakura Haruno had appeared around the corner and was waving at him, smiling, her eyes crinkled in happiness. Fotunately, she was badass, like Ame and I, and we got along fairly well, especially seeing as her and Ame were both medical nin and could talk about techniques for hours. She was one of the few people that rarely annoyed Ame, and let me tell you right now that that was a considerable achievement. Naruto lit up like a lightbulb. "Long time, no see, eh Sakura?" He ran up to her and I dropped my arm, grinning like a fool at their happy reunion.<br>"Yeah, it has," she agreed, laughing a little, then her eyes narrowed as she leaned forward, scrutinizing him carefully. "Wait a minute... you've gotten taller than me, haven't you?"  
>"Hm?" Naruto stood back and measured his height vaguely against hers. "Yeah, I guess I have."<br>I felt like crying. Damn you, Naruto. I hadn't grown in four years. Looking at the boy with the scarf, I realized that I was only slightly taller than he was, and he was only a genin at the most. Curse life. Curse fate.  
>Speaking of which, the boy, now flanked by his friends – a girl with reddish hair in two of the most ridiculous ponytails and a boy wearing glasses – called out for Naruto's attention as he taked to Sakura, who had donned an annoyed expression. "Hey, Naruto!" He yelled.<br>"Huh?" Naruto turned away from Sakura inquisitively, and right on cue, there was a puff of smoke where the boy was standing and in his place, to Sakura's horror and to Ame's and my amusement, stood a voluptuous, naked brunette girl, clouds of smoke curling around her privates so that we couldn't see too much. "Sexy no jutsu~" The naked girl announced seductively, then was once again enveloped in a cloud of smoke as the boy returned to his usual state. "Well, what do you think?" he asked excitedly. "Not too bad on the curves department there, huh?"  
>After that, there was silence. I looked from Sakura's horrified expression, to Ame's smirk, to the boy's triumphant grin. I just couldn't hold it in any longer. I burst out laughing, clutching my sides. "Oh my god!" I cried, taking deep breaths in order to speak. "That's fucking <em>priceless! <em>Did you teach him that, Naruto? You're a freaking genius!"  
>"Yeah, I did..." He admitted a little guiltily, scratching the back of his head. "But come on, Konahamaru... I'm not the kid I used to be. And you shouldn't be using jutsu like that either, it's beneath you." As he said this, Sakura gazed at him in admiration, while Konahamaru's excited expression faded and he looked at the ground sadly.<br>"Uh..." I heard Ame murmer from behind me, her voice gaining an uncomfortable, nervous edge to it; one I didn't hear often. "Yeah?" I turned away from the others, just as Naruto shouted, "I MEAN COME ON, KONAHAMARU, IS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT? I'M GONNA SHOW YOU SOME BRAND-SPANKING NEW PERVY NINJUTSU!"  
>Ame said nothing. Instead, she flicked a lock of long, dark red hair back over her shoulder, revealing the crimson of blood on her shoulder. "What?" I exclaimed, looking at her for an explanation and lowering my voice. "Where did that come from? Are you hurt?"<br>"It's not my blood," came her muted reply. "Somebody's in the trees above us. And if someone just got their period, somebody's gonna die."

It all happened so quickly. Something caught my eye out of the corner of my vision; a dark shadow descending from the shelter of the leaf canopy above. "Ame!" I cried, but I didn't need to waste my breath. At the same time, we had sprung away from each other as the shadow pounced, landing in a crouch in the place where we used to be. I looked over to Naruto and the others briefly, hearing a few gasps. There was about seven of the enemies standing in front of them, their backs to us. We were outnumbered. If we had any hope of surviving, we needed reinforcements. "Get out of here, Konahamaru! Go and get help!" Naruto yelled over at the boy, who hesitated, but nodded determinedly and sprinted into the village with his friends.  
>I whipped back around towards our sole enemy (clearly they had underestimated Ame and myself), who wore dark, tight clothes like its other comrades. A Village of the Grass headband flashed in the sun, and a trail of blood ran down from one of his nostrils. What the hell were these guys doing here?<p>

The last time they were here was during out first Chunin exams, which none of us passed although we reached the finals. However, we never got to fight our matches, because there was some kind of sleeping jutsu released over the stadium. And as it turns out, some of those bastard sound ninja, Orochimaru's subordinates, were disguised as Grass Village guys. I remember the one who was Orochimaru in the flesh, with the long, black cape and the creepy tongue and all. The fact that we were in the same room - even standing next to, at some points – as one of the most evil guys in history, and the brief thought that something was amiss didn't even occur to us, would forever screw with my mind. Even though the Grass guys weren't associated with him in the end, my view of them would forever be tainted, and them jumping out of the trees at us wasn't doing them any favours. God knows what these guys were doing here, but I swear to God, if it was any Orochimaru funny business I was really going to get mad.  
>"Well, at least it wasn't period, Ame," I said, nodding at our opponent's blood nose.<br>"Hey! What the hell are you guys doing here?" I heard an angry voice demand behind us. Reinforcements, sweet. Glancing over to the direction of the voice, I was pleased to find that it was the two hot ninjas, Kotetsu and Izumo, who were supposed to be on duty but had been snoring in content when I had strutted up to the entrance of the village. The two of them were now running towards us, pulling kunai and shuriken out of their pouches. But the grass guys didn't waste any time waiting for them. Ame and my opponent flicked his wrist deftly, sending a fair few thin, shiny objects slicing through the air towards us. I didn't wait to get a closer look at what they were and sprung away and rolled sideways, meanwhile Ame, with her catlike grace and agility, had somehow managed to defy gravity and jump high enough to land on an overhanging branch some twenty metres above the ground. Realizing that we meant business, he called another of his friends over for help, and jumped up into the tree after Ame. His friend was very tall, towering a clear extra fifty centremetres over me, but what I didn't have in size I would make up for in speed and strength. Letting loose a savage battle-cry, I ran head-on at the guy, who appeared startled for a brief second in time but laughed mockingly at me. Big mistake. This wasn't going to be like sparring practice with a genin. Feeling my expression contort in anger, I made the necessary hand signs for my jutsu, producing three identical illusions of myself in a puff of smoke, meanwhile, concealed behind the remaining smoke and my copies, I used my earth seal to disappear underground.

It was dark under here, obviously. Not the kind of dark that you get at night, nope, this was the pitch black that blinded your vision when you were in a small, windowless room at night time. Opening your eyes was a bad idea, seeing as you were surrounded by rocks and dirt. Instead, I could sense where people were standing on the surface. I directed my copies to attack and waited for a response. There was a bunch of moving pressure points to my right, probably Sakura and the others. As I directed two of my clones to engage my opponent in close combat, the other stood back and hurled a couple of kunai at him. The footsteps vaguely matching the course of action I would expect my opponent to take disappeared, then reappeared closer to me. It was definitely him. Time to show him what pain really was. Pushing aside the rocks in my way like they were nothing, I reached my enemy and punched a hand through the surface, latching onto what I hoped was his ankle. I howl of surprise told me I had hit the jackpot.  
>With the rage of a demon escaping the fiery pits of hell, I sprung out of the ground, grinning triumphantly and keeping a firm grip on his ankle. He was tipped forward off his feet. Whilst still in midair, I lifted my foot and slammed it hard into his back, sending him swinging forward. A resounding crack seemed to echo around me as his head slammed onto the ground, a shudder rippling through his body. I instantly let go, disgusted, and the rest of his body thumped limply to the floor.<br>There was a rustling of leaves and the snapping of twigs as a figure dropped heavily out of the trees and landed sprawled onto the ground, blood soaking through its shirt and staining the ground. Ame had done her job well. She followed shortly afterwards, clutching a bloodied kunai and smirking. But the trouble was far from over. It seemed that more of the grass guys had arrived since my trip underground. Enraged, I saw Sakura bring her fist to the ground with inhuman force, fracturing the ground like it was one huge tile. The grass guys all yelled out to each other and jumped towards the more larger slabs of ground. Over the yelling I began to hear a woman screaming; children crying. Suddenly there were two more of them upon me, one wielding a sword, the other a bamboo bow. The one with the sword slashed angrily at my chest, the other taking a swipe at my shins with his bow. With lightning reflexes I somehow leaned back and jumped, completing a full back-flip, then dropped to the ground and rolled away to buy myself more time.  
>"Yuri!" I heard Ame cry out as I was taking a kunai out of its holdster. She was engaged in close combat with another one, but managed to feint a swing to the side and sliced the guy's stomach open. He screamed and dropped the weapon he was holding, clutching the wound in his stomach as blood spurted between his fingers, staining the front of his clothes a dark red. She didn't hesitate or say anything else to me; instead she pointed off into town, where a group of dark figures had broken away from the fray and were running further into the village. "Bastards," I muttered to myself before I abandoned my opponents and took off after them.<p>

Running hard side-by-side, silently encouraging one another to run faster, the figures were quickly growing larger as we closed the space between them and us. One of them looked over their shoulder, barked a warning to their friends, and pretty soon we were sprinting full-speed after the group, determined not to let them get away. However, they were slipping away from us slowly as they pelted down Konoha's streets, turning in what seemed to me as either completely random directions or a well-memorized path. Ame and I alternated in throwing stars at them, but none of them seemed to hit their target.  
>A dark shape suddenly appeared out of oblivion – a shuriken, spinning with graceful and deadly precision – soared in an arc towards the group, where with a sickening thud it claimed a life for its own as it sunk into the back of a woman. The man running beside her must have also been struck because he stumbled and fell to his knees, the woman hitting the floor lifelessly by his side. I dashed forward, intending to finish him off before he could escape, but somebody darted out of the shadows and leapt through the air, slashing the man violently across the throat. I should have known that it was Byakurai. Our squad was complete.<br>No words were exchanged, as is his way. Byakurai had never spoken for the whole time that we had known him. Ask him a question and you don't even get a one-word answer. You'll just get a blank stare in response. The non-verbal language barrier was a substantial difficulty at first, but later on developed a deeper understanding between the three of us, as we began to notice and read the subtle differences in his demeanour. To others, he appeared completely indifferent and expressionless. He looked sideways at Ame and I, blood dripping off his kunai in what seemed like slow-motion, before he whirled around and joined the chase, running slightly ahead of us.  
>I had to hand it to this group. Despite their non-existant badassery levels, they could run pretty damn fast.<br>Just as I was beginning to lose hope that we would ever catch up to them, I heard a savage yell revertebrate from a nearby alleyway, and to our shock a spinning ball of colour shot out of a side-street and slammed into the group of five like a massive cannon-ball, sending the whole lot flying into a vending stand, deserted prior. Wood and other debris sliced their destructive path through the air and I couldn't help but cry out, flinching and reflexively throwing my arm in front of my face for protection. The whole place was concealed by a cloud of airborne dust and dirt. As the smoke started to clear I saw a broad, armoured figure standing proudly; heard the groaning of the grass guys as they struggled to get to their feet.  
>"No you don't..." I heard a familiar voice say from the alleyway behind me. My heart swelled as I beheld him there, and I could feel an idiotic, completely un-badass smile fighting to take control of my facial muscles. There crouched on top of the closed lid of a dumpster was a man I was very familiar with – Shikumaru. In all his badassery and manliness. A few hand signs later and his shadow stretched forward, joining with those of the grass guys. Man, he was so awesome. I knew it from the day that I first saw him that we would get along swimmingly, and that was exactly what happened. Out of all the residents of Konoha (excluding my teammates, of course), I'd have to say that we were the closest to best friends I'd ever get to anybody else. He was just such a genuine, laid-back guy.<br>Another person stepped out of the alleyway, only recognisable by her face and hair, and purple-schemed clothing. But aside from that, Ino was no longer the skinny waif she used to be. She had put on a bit of height and had developed into quite the woman. I'm just going to say it as it was. She was hot. No homo. She tossed her head, her long blonde ponytail swinging over her shoulder. "Well I'd say that was a job well done, boys," she said in a honeyed tone, smiling at her teammates, then looked over to my team and myself, observing each of us individually. "And good job by you guys as well... I'm not sure if they would have come this way if you hadn't chased them down here."  
>"Well, what can I say?" I said in a voice that implied that the answer was obvious. "We're just badass like that."<br>I heard an exasperated sigh coming from Shikamaru's direction. "Come on, Saiyuri, this is such a drag... stop talking about how badass you are and just finish this. You're wasting my chakra." He grinned cheekily at me and nodded at the grass guys, whose expressions ranged from confusion, rage and fear as they stood there helplessly, unable to break free from his Shadow Imitation Technique.  
>Ame grinned evilly from beside me. "Sure thing," she replied, and stepped forward to the grass shinobi, holding her bloodied kunai thoughtfully as she contemplated whose life to take first. "Should it be you, you or you?" She asked tauntingly, pointing it lazily at them each in turn. Drops of blood flicked off its point and splattered on their faces.<p>

The ninja's eyes widened in fear as the group of us closed in on them.

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><p>After writing this chapter, I've realized that there's going to be a lot of humor in this story. Hope you don't mind.<p> 


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